A former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and elder statesman, Chief Adebisi Akande, has said that the tension and threats generated by the opposition in the country with the view to denying President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of victory in the 2023 presidential election were misplaced, considering the performance of his administration one year in office.
Besides, Akande added that the opposition had, even before independence, never wanted a united country.
He said, “Since 1953, when a motion for Independence was first moved in Parliament by Chief Tony Enahoro, our polity has been moving from tension of one threat to another that Nigeria must not be allowed to continue as one and united country”.
His assertion was on the heels of praises and accolades heaped by the Governor of Kaduna, Uba Sani, and his counterpart in Benue State, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia, on Tinubu, saying that “the President is the pillar of democracy in Nigeria”.
In his remarks as the Chairman of a One-Day Lecture organised by Arewa Think Tank to celebrate one-year achievements of the administration of President Tinubu, Akande said, “Towards the last elections, the prophecy was thick that Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not become the APC candidate, he did become!
“Religious clerics of one belief and the other became sleepless for him not to win the presidential elections, he won!
“Spiritual threats and political manoeuvring began thereafter that he would not be inaugurated as a Nigerian president, he assumed the presidency!
“The battle shifted to the judicial sword-crossing that he should be removed from the presidency, his presidency became upheld! Other predictions were that he would have no health to manage the office; he remained divinely healthy.
“Then the agitation that Nigeria would not survive his political agenda, Nigeria has been waxing stronger and stronger as one and united country! One Nigeria is a major part of what we are now celebrating.
“I was the pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – the great political party that produced the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose one-year administrative anniversary was being officially celebrated since over a week up to yesterday.
“I am, therefore, particularly convinced that Nigeria will forever continue to be sustained as a more peaceful, more developed, more progressive, and a more prosperous country under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and beyond.
“I urge all of us to be thinking about how to sustain a united, peaceful, and prosperous Nigeria. May our collective and individual aspirations within a better and most respectable Nigeria be divinely realised.”
The theme of the lecture, “Our Diversity, Our Strength,” was delivered by the guest speaker, the Governor of Benue State, Rev. Father Alia, while Kaduna State governor, Sani, was the Chief Host of the event.
Rev. Father Alia stressed the need for Nigeria’s unity, saying that “our religions should not be a dividing factor for us.”
He added that Nigeria as a country must not fail as its failure would negatively affect the entire Africa, as a continent.
“We should not take our diversity for granted, our diversity should be our power, strength, and unifying force that holds us together as one people.
“Diversity should not be a source of conflicts and tension; it should rather build a more robust and prosperous Nigeria. If Nigeria fails as a nation, all the countries in Africa will fail.
“Tinubu has brought hope for unity irrespective of our differences in religion, ethnicity, and social status, and he stepped up progress or otherwise on infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, and every possible parameter of social engineering”. Governor Alia said.
On his part, Sani also harped on the unity of Nigerians, saying that with unity of purpose, Nigeria and Nigerians would achieve the desired peace and progress.
He added that it was only when Nigerians come together as one that “there will be peace.”
He continued that President Bola Tinubu meant well for the country despite the current hardship occasioned by the removal of subsidy on oil and other policies of the current administration.
Going down memory lane, the governor said President Tinubu was one of those that fought for the enthronement of the current democracy.
He said the president was one of the financiers of the pro-democracy movement at the period Nigerians wanted the military to leave for democracy to thrive.
Sani, therefore, urged Nigerians to support the President despite the hardship because he (Tinubu) holds Nigerians and Nigeria high.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Chief Convener, Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu pointed out that, “The objective of the event is aimed at strengthening and encouraging the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of President Bola Tinubu which has several laudable brilliant layers linked to foreign investment drive, energising the health sector, making education affordable for the poor and underserved, delivering good governance amidst debt burden, social and economic transformation, driving peace and religious harmony, as well as measures to combat rural banditry and insecurity across the country.
“The one-year stewardship of President Tinubu has recorded remarkable and impressive achievements in many aspects of governance considering the level of mismanagement and unfavourable security situation he inherited from the previous administration. As such, it behooves all patriotic citizens to support him, especially ‘his cabinet ministers and appointees to achieve greater successes necessary to propel the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability in governance and development that will ensure peace, progress, and unity of the country”, he added.
